Everybody Needs Poetry

What the world needs is another book of poems, huh? Yeah, right. Actually, YES, RIGHT! What the world needs is people stepping out of their monkey-brains long enough to listen to poetry. It may surprise you with what it has to offer. And if you aren’t surprised, if you are a poet yourself, you know what you need to do? Read other people’s poetry. It will make you a better poet . . . and person.

So, sure, I’m trying to get you to buy this lovely, slim volume of my recent poetry (thank you, Ken, for the title and the title poem inspiration). I also believe what I am saying. When I was young, I sat on the roof of our house and wrote poetry on a little pink pad and folded the poems up and stored them under the roof tiles. I also kept poems locked in a metal file box (which I found out years later that my mom jimmied and read–thanks a lot, Mom! Har!).  It took quite a while before I actually let people read my poems.

Now, I am a slut for an audience. I know, it happens to the best of us. We write because we are compelled to–and I think most people are compelled to write . . . maybe not poetry . . . but poetry exists in so much of what we write. The first exhibit I put together at ROMP was of the margin comments a high school girl made in the 50’s in an old English literature textbook. My grandmother wrote snippets about people and events on her drugstore calendar, and there is much poetry in those snippets. I asked a recent lumber store owner who attended ROMP V-Day to make a list of things in the aisle of his store, and what he came up with is poetry.

Please click on the book photo to purchase the book. Any book profits go to keeping the museum going. If you would prefer a signed copy, please feel free to purchase one for $10 straight from me (PayPal address is okieload@sstelco.com), and I will sign it and mail it to you. Thank you, kind readers! ROMP On!